Live: Perpetual Change by Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks
Release date: March 14, 2025Label: Frontiers Music
Where do we begin? How do we start things off? Well, let’s start things off with a big bang on this 2-CD / 1 DVD set. This was recorded on May 12th and 13th of 2023 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois and the Des Plaines Theatre in Des Plaines, Illinois where we are witnessing, a truly, yet incredible live album of Yes songs performed not just by Jon Anderson, but The Band Geeks who honor and stay true to the vision of the band’s legacy by pouring their heart and souls into the music that is like a roller-coaster ride, waiting to happen.
Live Perpetual Change isn’t just a tribute album, but a live album that you can just close your eyes and imagine yourself being at those two venues, supporting Jon and the Band Geeks tackling tracks from The Yes Album, Relayer, Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Going for the One. While they unleashed the True album last year on the Frontiers label, it was time to take a trip back into a sight-seeing wonder that’ll make you want to put those records on, again and again and think how cool Yes really were.
Geeks have upped their game level when it comes to tackling the challenging arrangements honoring Steve Howe, Patrick Moraz, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman, Tony Kaye, and the late great maestros; Alan White and Chris Squire.
From Richie’s Rickenbacker going higher and higher towards the skies between ‘Heart of the Sunrise’ and the killer introduction behind ‘Yours is No Disgrace’, the tuned-down folk turned joyful celebrated version of ‘Your Move / I’ve Seen All Good People’, and the mellotronic sounds that Christopher Clark tackles on ‘Starship Trooper’ in the first part of the piece on ‘Life Seeker’ then its moog-like scenery before Graziano goes into this country-orientated texture for ‘Disillusion’ which speaks of not just Howe’s arrangements, but Roy Clark.
It is a crowd-pleaser as the climax of ‘Wurm’ gets audience clapping along to the Bolero-like setting as the engines ignite to set course for another adventure along the way. ‘Awaken’ sounds incredible thanks to its piano concerto-like introduction which was originally released on 1977’s Going for the One. As soon as the piano rises more with its intensive arrangements, the doors open up to reveal this dream-like meditation before its volcanic eruption starts to build up to show the chaos and nightmarish terror Geeks are visioning Yes’ illustration.
Then, returning back to Hesse’s view of the human race which is evidential behind ‘And You and I’ as Jon and the band have upped their game level to finding your true self and self-discovery with a hope to explore more worlds that is waiting for us beyond the infinite doors that awaits us. But once they tackle the 22-minute epic ‘The Gates of Delirium’, you know that Geeks are always up for a challenge to tackle Moraz’s time with the band in 1974.
Going not just into the prog orientation, but jazz fusion and this enormous arrangement with its Italian-like approach Geeks would honour the keyboard punches of Premiata Forneria Marconi ad high-rising guitar textures that send shivers down your spine. There are some incredible ways to honour the compositions that places inside our hearts, but for Jon and the Geeks, they knocked it out of the ball park to give Yes fans the loyalty they truly deserve.
